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Wry vs Wit - What's the difference?

wry | wit |

As an adjective wry

is turned away, contorted (of the face or body).

As a verb wry

is (obsolete|intransitive) to turn (away); to swerve or deviate or wry can be (obsolete) to cover; clothe; cover up; cloak; hide.

wry

English

Etymology 1

From (etyl) wrien, from (etyl) . Compare awry, wriggle.

Adjective

(en-adj)
  • Turned away, contorted (of the face or body).
  • * 1837 , , The Pickwick Papers , ch. 17:
    • '"Why, you snivelling, wry -faced, puny villain," gasped old Lobbs.
  • * 1913 , , The Motion Picture Chums at Seaside Park , ch. 11:
    • “Humph! Had to,” said Pep with a wry grimace.
  • Dryly humorous; sardonic or bitterly ironic.
  • * 1871 , , The Haunted Baronet , ch. 6:
    • "[T]he master says a wry word now and then; and so ye let your spirits go down, don't ye see, and all sorts o' fancies comes into your head."
  • Twisted, bent, crooked.
  • Deviating from the right direction; misdirected; out of place.
  • * 1820 , , The Abbot , ch. 34:
    • Catherine hath made a wry stitch in her broidery, when she was thinking of something else than her work.
  • * 1876 , , The Works and Life of Walter Savage Landor , vol. IV, Imaginary Conversations, Third Series: Dialogues of Literary Men, ch. 6—Milton and Andrew Marvel, p. 155 (Google preview):
    • . . . the wry rigour of our neighbours, who never take up an old idea without some extravagance in its application.
    Derived terms
    * wryly * awry

    Verb

  • (obsolete) To turn (away); to swerve or deviate.
  • * 1535 , , Dialogue of Comfort Against Tribulation , ch. 18:
    • God pricketh them of his great goodness still. And the grief of this great pang pincheth them at the heart, and of wickedness they wry away.
  • * , Cymbeline , act 5, sc. 1:
    • You married ones,
    If each of you should take this course, how many
    Must murder wives much better than themselves
    For wrying but a little!
  • (obsolete) To divert; to cause to turn away.
  • To twist or contort (the body, face etc.).

    • Etymology 2

    From (etyl) wryen, wrien, wreon, wrihen, from (etyl) .

    Verb

  • (obsolete) To cover; clothe; cover up; cloak; hide.

    • wit

    English

    Etymology 1

    From (etyl), from (etyl) . Compare (m).

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • Sanity.
  • The senses.
  • Intellectual ability; faculty of thinking, reasoning.
  • The ability to think quickly; mental cleverness, especially under short time constraints.
  • Intelligence; common sense.
  • Humour, especially when clever or quick.
  • *
    • , title=(The Celebrity), chapter=8 , passage=The humor of my proposition appealed more strongly to Miss Trevor than I had looked for, and from that time forward she became her old self again;
  • A person who tells funny anecdotes or jokes; someone witty.
    • Synonyms
    * See also
    Derived terms
    * brevity is the soul of wit * collect one's wits * gather one's wits * have one’s wits about one * inwit * mother wit * native wit * scare out of one’s wits * witcraft * witful * witless * witling * witter * wittol * witticism

    See also

    (type of humor) * acid * biting * cutting * lambent

    Etymology 2

    From (etyl) (m), from (etyl) . Compare (m).

    Verb

    (head)
  • (ambitransitive, chiefly, archaic) Know, be aware of .
    • You committed terrible actions — to wit , murder and theft — and should be punished accordingly.
    They are meddling in matters that men should not wit of.
  • * 1849 , , St. Luke the Painter , lines 5–8
    • but soon having wist
    How sky-breadth and field-silence and this day
    Are symbols also in some deeper way,
    She looked through these to God and was God’s priest.
    Conjugation
    {, , - , valign="top" , {, class="prettytable" , - ! Infinitive , to wit , - ! Imperative , wit , - ! Present participle , witting , - ! Past participle , wist , } , valign="top" , {, class="prettytable" , - ! ! Present indicative ! Past indicative , - ! First-person singular , I wot , I wist , - ! Second-person singular , thou wost, wot(test) (archaic); you wot , thou wist(est) (archaic), you wist , - ! Third-person singular , he/she/it wot , he/she/it wist , - ! First-person plural , we wit(e) , we wist , - ! Second-person plural , ye wit(e) (archaic); you wit(e) , ye wist (archaic), you wist , - ! Third-person plural , they wit(e) , they wist , } , }
    Usage notes
    * As a preterite-present verb, the third-person singular indicative form is not .
    Derived terms
    * to wit * unwitting * witness

    Etymology 3

    From English with.

    Preposition

    (head)
  • (en-SoE)

    • Anagrams

    * English irregular verbs English terms with homophones ----